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Showing posts from March, 2008

Napoleon in Egypt

Nina Burleigh 2007 Napoleon's Scientists and the Unveiling of Egypt. Harper Collins New York. A popular and very readable account of the 1798 adventure by Napoleon to deny Egypt to the British. Hundreds of scholars and students accompanied the expeditions and were feted but eventually abandoned by Napoleon. Denon wrote an account of travels in upper and lower Egypt which was rapidly translated into English but the main output was the massive Description of Egypt published in several parts, initially under the authority of Napoleon, but after he was deposed under that of the restored monarch - this despite many of the scholars being treated abominably under the new regime. The book was one foundation of the incorporation of ancient Egyptian design elements into Empire Style. The Taschen edition (1990) is probably the most accessible, but it is also online. Along with many of the army, a sizeable proportion of the scholars were never to leave Egypt, dying there, many of the plague.